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Sunday, July 27, 2014

Glenmorangie Companta


Companta is the fifth and newest release in Glenmorangie's Private Edition. The whisky was aged in American oak and then finished in various wine and fortified wine casks.  It's non-age stated and non-chill filtered.

Glenmorangie Companta, 46% abv ($100)

The nose is malty with orange rind, brandy notes and lots of fruit.  The palate is fairly straightforward and malty with a touch of honey and a bit of acid; the acid grows toward the end getting a bit astringent.  The finish has red wine notes and some sherry type notes on the nose but the astringency stays with you.

I'm not a huge fan of this malt.  The nose is very nice, but it's overly astringent and the wine notes aren't integrated well into the malt.  I much prefer last year's Ealanta release, which, based on repeated tastings, I've grown to like even more than I did in my initial review.

Thanks to My Annoying Opinions for the sample, and check out his somewhat more favorable review of the Glenmorangie Companta.


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9 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 28, 2014 at 12:16 AM

    Sonnalta PX was the highlight - now gone

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  2. AnonymousJuly 28, 2014 at 4:48 AM

    A sideways question. A recent 2014 international whiskey competition gave Johnnie Walker Red a gold medal. Which makes no sense to me at all. What is your take on how this happens?

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  3. SkuJuly 28, 2014 at 8:09 AM

    You have to be careful about those competitions. There are tons of them. Some are mostly profit making ventures, charging high admissions fees, in some, nearly everyone who enters gets an award. I trust very few of those things.

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  4. AnonymousJuly 28, 2014 at 8:36 AM

    Thanks for the reply. I thought it sounded odd, for a product like Red Label to win a gold medal. A bit of cynicism can go a long way.

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  5. AnonymousJuly 28, 2014 at 2:06 PM

    I think some (many) of these and similar "competitions" (whiskey, wine, dance, etc.) are actually "graded evaluations". There are scoring bands and each item is scored. Based on your score, you receive the appropriate "award". While our long-running familiarity with the Olympics may make us think of Gold as First Place, there coule easily be Gold, High Gold, Super Gold and a whole series of Platinum and Unobtanium scores above that, making "Gold" the same as getting a "C" on your report card. Or the bands could be really wide as in 7/10 or better is Gold, 5/10 or better is Silver, etc.

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  6. AnonymousJuly 28, 2014 at 5:47 PM

    Agreed on this review. Much prefer Glenmo 18 to Companta.

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  7. Funky TapeJuly 28, 2014 at 8:32 PM

    Totally with you. Just had a brief sample of the Companta and enjoyed the deep fruit but the finish was kinda rank. Now the Ealanta, that's an excellent whiskey worth $100.

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  8. Native Miami RealtorJuly 31, 2014 at 10:39 AM

    Hi Steve I thoroughly enjoyed your interview on NPR regarding the MGP whiskey information. I'm a bourbon guy myself, and it has me wondering if the same trend occurs with corn and bourbon bottlers.
    Very informative stuff.

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  9. skuJuly 31, 2014 at 11:43 AM

    Ramesh, you may want to move this discussion to the current post about the sourcing issue. MGP, the big distillery in Indiana, makes bourbon as well as rye so it's the same issue.

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